AN: Sorry I didn't update this immediately as I said I would, I've been having a few health problems that I'm trying to take care of, so all my updating is taking a bit of a break for the moment. Sorry!

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…Part II…

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"I really hate this place," Alan says quietly, and Ian grabs his hand and squeezes it tight for a moment, and then drops it, looking startled. Alan looks at him, perplexed.

They both look at the car in front of them. Ian clears his throat.

"We should get back to the complex?" he offers. Alan nods.

"After you?"

Ian smirks. "Maybe you should lead."

They stumble forward.

The world is a bit blurry, one of those fantastic side-effects of lack of sleep, but Alan grabs Ian's arm when he trips, and then forgets to remove it.

The first touch of light is inching along the sky when they finally come into sight of civilization (or what passes for it here).

At least the rain has lessened (a bit).

Their legs are rather liberally coated in mud, thanks to the frequent slipping and falling, and they haven't eaten anything in hours upon hours, and Ian Malcolm is Not Happy.

Except he slips for the umpteenth time, swearing soundly, but when a tired Alan reaches down a hand and offers up a smile despite the circumstances, Ian smiles back at him and let's himself be helped up.

And maybe his mood isn't quite as bad as he'd originally thought.

When they enter the building and come across the banquet of food, they're hard-pressed to not descend upon it like the biblical plague of locusts.

Alan rather thinks he ought to find the others, however, and despite his generous offer Ian's not about to allow him out of his sight.

Quite a few wrong turns later, Muldoon is standing in front of them, gun raised, finger on the trigger, and they both simultaneously yell and drop to the ground.

"Christ!" Muldoon swears, lowering the ground. "You tramp around like a pack of bloody elephants, what were you expecting, you idiots?"

Alan full on glares at him from where he's sprawled on the floor. "Put the gun down, Muldoon," he says, his words precise and not half biting. Muldoon shrugs, and leans it back against his shoulder casually.

"We were wondering where you'd got to," he says, as Alan gets to his feet and then half-hauls Ian up as well.

"The kids?" Ian asks, and Muldoon nods.

"They're fine. Gennaro wasn't so lucky."

"Then maybe you can take us somewhere safer?" Alan asks, irritated, and Ian nudges him with a smirk. Alan rolls his eyes but settles, and Muldoon watches, intrigued.

"This way," he offers, and then shrugs and leads them off.

Several more twisting hallways, and he politely pretends not to hear the whispered conversation taking place behind them.

"You could be nicer," Ian half-snarks. Alan rolls his eyes.

"I was being nice."

"He did find us."

"We got this far, I think we could've made it the extra twenty yards."

Muldoon knocks on the door before opening it, so the people inside aren't out-right terrified. They are, however, a bit shocked when Ian and Alan enter.

"Alan!" Ellie yells, standing up, but before she can get close Lex and Timmy have full-out flung themselves at Alan and Ian, and, unprepared, the four of them fall to the ground in a tangle of limbs.

"You okay? You okay?" Ian asks, wrapping his arms around Tim as Lex buries her face in Alan's chest and bursts into tears.

"It followed you back into the cage b-but then it came back—" Timmy starts, wide-eyes locked on Ian's.

"And h-he left us! H-he saw the dinosaur coming and he ran and hid—" Lex continues, voice getting higher and higher.

"And it stomped around and then we could hear you two yelling and it followed you back in—"

"We thought you were dead!"

"Dead? Us?" Ian laughs, ruffling Tim's hair. "Nah—it took one look at Alan's ugly mug and it ran away screaming for its mother!"

Alan, who is trying to figure out what to do with an armful of sobbing preteen girl, shoots him a dirty look that Ian just ignores. Luckily for him, the death grip Lex has on Alan's shirt (and underneath, skin) prevents him from doing anything more threatening than narrowing his eyes. Ian winks jauntily in reply.

"Th-thank you," Lex sniffles into his shirt. Ellie is attempting to hide her smile behind her hands. Ian isn't even bothering to do that.

"We were worried about you," Hammond cuts in. "I'm glad you made it…although, I guess what better person to get you both back safely than a dinosaur expert?"

"Funny," Alan says, not looking at all amused. "Considering that we've spent the night hiding from creatures that went extinct 65 million years ago—"

"—and climbing vines!" Ian cuts in, sounding outraged. Alan's face softens a bit as he looks at Ian and then finishes.

"—I think perhaps we should be considering how to get out of this mess."

"We haven't exactly been sitting around," Muldoon says, frowning.

"We rebooted the system and Mr. Arnold went to reset the breakers a bit ago, but he hasn't returned," Ellie says.

"I was taking a little look around for him when I ran in to you, actually," Muldoon says.

"We just need to give him a little more time," Hammond says.

Ian and Alan exchange looks.

"You do realize there are…uh…dinosaurs out there, yes?" Ian asks, frowning at Hammond.

"Dr. Malcolm," Hammond says, more than an edge to his voice, but Ellie interrupts.

"We could go look for him? It wouldn't exactly do any harm."

Ian and Alan look at each other, and despite the fact that they haven't slept (or eaten) they realize with a sigh that they're both willing to go back out there.

"Where are the breakers located?" Alan says, a bit of a grumble in his voice, which makes Ian smirk a little. Muldoon frowns.

"I'll go," he says, and when Ian opens his mouth to volunteer (and he did not see that coming, clearly Alan's a bad influence) Muldoon unlocks a cabinet. And there, there are guns. Ian's eyebrow lifts up, clearly intrigued, and Alan tries not to groan at the terrifying image of Ian wielding a gun.

"You can't go on your own," Ellie says, arms crossed firmly in front of her. "I'll go with you."

"Ellie," Alan says, obviously irritated, and she shakes her head.

"You look like crap, Alan. You're clearly in no shape to be wandering around avoiding dinosaurs, so I think I've got this one."

"But—" Alan starts, and she stares at him.

"Sit down before you fall down."

Ian isn't quite able to hide his grin, and Alan transfers his scowl to him. Ellie's lips twitch a little as she watches them, but she doesn't say anything.

"You better get back safe and sound, then," Alan says. "I'm not explaining this to your boyfriend, he's scary."

"Didn't you spend the entire night hiding from dinosaurs…?" she asks. Alan shrugs with a grin, and she smacks him lightly upside the head.

Muldoon and Ellie leave, and Hammond's talking to the kids in the corner, so Alan allows himself to slump down on the floor against the wall. Ian's busy rummaging through things, and Alan watches him lazily through half-shut eyes, almost dozing until Ian plops down next to him and nudges him, silently offering him some sort of packaged protein bar which Alan gratefully accepts.

Ian's long legs stretch out next to Alan's, and they eat in companionable silence, although Ian keeps glancing at Alan as if there's something he wants to say. Before he quite gets the chance, Tim and Lex, who have evidently escaped from their grandfather while he tries to direct Ellie and Muldoon, climb quite literally into their laps.

Alan blinks when Tim shoves between them, and then he suddenly bolts up.

"The raptors," he says, eyes wide, looking at Hammond. "You rebooted the computer—are the raptors out?"

Hammond stutters to a stop, and then, hesitantly, repeats the question to Muldoon. There's a decent-sized silence, and then Muldoon quietly gives the affirmative.

"Shit," Alan says, and by now Ian's gently slid Lex off of him and stood up as well.

"We going after them?" Ian asks, and Alan remotely thinks he's never been quite so grateful for a companion in his life.

"I know how the raptors hunt," he says. "Ellie isn't safe out there."

Hammond's looking between the two of them, fairly distressed, but both men have rather forgotten his presence as they look at each other.

Ian starts to speak, but Alan cuts him off.

"You aren't getting a gun."

"There are man-eating dinosaurs out there!"

"Yes, and they are more than enough for me to deal with without you shooting me in the back!" Alan snaps. Ian crosses his arms and stares at him. Alan adjusts his hat and stares right back. Lex and Timmy watch on, completely intrigued.

Ian smirks a little, though, and it's just enough, because Alan throws up his hands, and Ian full-out grins in victory as Alan grumbles about weapons and Ian's remarkable ability to get in trouble and how this is so not a good idea. Ian pretty much ignores him as he grabs two guns, tosses one to Alan, and then starts grabbing lots and lots of bullets.

Hammond is protesting that this isn't a very good idea, but Ian just gives him a gun, too.

"Can I have a gun?" Timmy asks.

Alan and Ian freeze, horrified, and as one they half-shout "NO!" Lex grins in pre-teen triumph.

"We'll be back before you even notice we're gone," Ian assures, and Alan rolls his eyes but deigns to comment.

Timmy and Lex, fairly unnerved about being relegated to their grandfather's protection (and stories) give them a hug, promise to be good, and (most important) promise to help their grandfather give directions, as they've already all had ample time to see that he's not so good at that.

"So we're really doing this, Dr. Grant?" Ian asks as he grabs a walkie and flips it on.

"I do believe we are. Would you care to lead, Dr. Malcolm?" Alan smirks. Ian rolls his eyes.

"Oh you know me and the pleasure of getting eaten alive, no one's getting in my way for that," he says.

Alan smirks and opens the door. "Lock it behind us," he orders Lex, and then they're once more off.

./.

...tbc...

AN: haha poor Hammond...but really, Ian and Alan kinda deserve to be a l'il pissed....